The global garment industry is moving from product supplier to service provider. This great, new text by David Birnbaum explains how to source fabric and trims in the post-2005 era. You can no longer depend on how you sourced materials a few years ago, those methods are already antiquated. Is your company on the leading edge, or are you falling behind?

Last man standing may well be an accurate description of the steps that we must take to survive the current downturn. Everything depends on how fast the players understand that the rules of survival have changed. For those seeking solutions, may I suggest, Crisis in the 21st Century Garment Industry and Breakthrough Unified Strategies

20 years ago, every middleman —every agent and every buying office —provided the same basic services. Today the list of required services has expanded geometrically and the skill-set needed to provide those services have expanded exponentially. The days when the middleman needed only merchandisers and QC are long gone.

Today, the difference between a first class and a mediocre middleman is the difference between success and bankruptcy.